Oneworld Publications are proud to publish Spirituality in the Land of the Noble: How Iran Shaped the World’s Religions by Richard C. Foltz, Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Florida.

The book has already been acclaimed as ‘The most balanced, absorbing, and informative survey of the vast landscape of Iranian religion and spirituality to date’ (Frederick M. Denny, University of Colorado at Boulder) and as ‘Engaging and straightforward, without dodging the controversies of scholarship or the realities of politics. Keep this on your bookshelf’ (John Perry, University of Chicago).

Following the paths of the Jews who migrated to Iran during the first millennium BCE, and the Iranian merchants who carried Buddhism along the Silk Road to China, this informed and informative account explores the impact of Persian culture on Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism and Islam. With a specific chapter devoted to the Bahá’í Faith, author Richard C. Foltz probes beneath the surface of world history to uncover a wealth of Iranian ideas and influences, from the sacred formulas of the ancient Aryan inhabitants to the spectacular architecture of Iran’s holiest cities. Spanning the full spectrum of Persian history from the earliest settlers right up to the present age, Foltz offers an invaluable insight into not only Iranian identity, but also the way religious traditions grow and change.

1 THE ORIGINS OF IRANIAN RELIGION 1
Iran and Iranianness 3
Indo-Europeans and the search for origins 4
Features of old Iranian religion 11

2 ZOROASTRIANISM 17
In search of Zoroaster 21
Zoroaster’s reform 22
Zoroastrian practice 27
Religion under the Achaemenids 30
Mithraism in the Roman world 32
The Sasanian state religion 33
The Islamization of Iran and Zoroastrian response 36
Zoroastrianism in India 38
Zoroastrians in modern Iran 39
Zoroastrianism’s contributions to other religions 40

3 JUDAISM 43
The beginnings of diaspora 45
The influence of Iranian ideas 48
The influence of Hellenism 50
The rabbinic period 51
The coming of Islam 54
Radical Jewish resistance movements 55
Iranian Jews in the Mongol period 56
The Safavid period 58